1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, a method of controlling the printing apparatus, a control program, and a computer readable storage medium storing the control program. In particular, the present invention can be preferably used for an ink-jet printing apparatus that prints a printing medium such as a paper using an ink-jet print head from which ink can be ejected, and an ink-jet printing apparatus using an elongate line type ink-jet print head.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ink-jet printing apparatus is configured so that a printing medium is printed by ejecting ink from a print head onto the medium. Such a printing apparatus has many advantages. For example, the print head can be easily made compact. High-definition images can be printed at high speed. Running costs are low. Noise is suppressed because of a non-impact method. By using multiple color inks, color images can be printed easily. In particular, it is possible to further increase the printing speed of a full line type printing apparatus using an elongate print head having a large number of ink ejecting ports arranged along a width direction of the printing medium, i.e. a line type print head.
However, in the full line type printing apparatus, the line type print head tends to be large and heavy. It thus takes much time to transfer the print head from a standby state during a non-printing period to a printing enabled state.
For example, during the non-printing period, a cap covering the ink ejecting ports in the print head prevents a nozzle section from becoming dry. When a printing operation is started, the cap must be removed. Accordingly, much time is required before a printing process can be started. As a result, in particular, it takes much time to print the first page (first print).